


The Eldest Sister

by MirrorMystic



Category: The Sandman (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-24
Updated: 2012-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-03 10:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11530215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MirrorMystic/pseuds/MirrorMystic
Summary: It is difficult not to love her. After all, she loves you.





	The Eldest Sister

**** ~*~  
  
Her siblings dare not speak her name, but it is a name we use freely.   
Carelessly, perhaps. But who are we to know?   
It is said that everybody sees her twice.  
You have met her before, and you will meet her again.   
  
~*~  
  
I see her in the dark.  
I see her in the cold.   
I see her in dark alleys under waning lights, late-night pharmacies, diners open 24/7.   
I hear her in the rattle of pills, in every glass bottle on a wooden counter.   
I feel her in the mornings after, when my head is splitting, and the blinds are open, and the sun is bright-  
And I throw open the window in a cold sweat, and I can no longer feel the sun.    
  
~*~  
  
She watches as it happens.   
She is with me through the night, watching, doing nothing.   
She says she loves me, and that she's sorry, as his hand covers my mouth.   
  
~*~  
  
I don't want to cry. Not in front of the kids. Who wants to see their Daddy cry?  
But I close the cabinet, and I see her, and I see me, bags under my eyes, in the bathroom mirror.   
Not here, I beg her. Please. The kids are just outside.   
It's okay, she says, and I'm crazy enough to believe her.   
It's okay, she says, and she holds me as I weep.   
  
~*~  
  
The man two beds down hasn't said a word since I got here.   
She visits him, every day, when they dim the lights and the sun goes down.   
His mind screams "Please!" and she only shakes her head.   
Not yet, she whispers, and she looks up at me.   
  
~*~  
  
The smoke stings my eyes, and soon, I cannot breathe.   
I'm the last one out. The whole building is going up.   
They're carrying me out when I see her in the blaze.   
Save her, I yell at the firefighters beside me.   
Save her, I plead, and I wonder why they cannot hear.   
  
~*~  
  
She asks me to make a list of the things that make me happy.   
I write "playing with scissors" at the top of the list, and I can't think of anything else.   
She holds my hand, and I apologize for getting red on her nice dress,   
and she says she's sorry that my list is so short.   
  
~*~  
  
She takes him from his cradle and holds him in her arms.   
He smiles and calls her Mama, and she blinks away a tear.   
  
~*~  
  
We fly through an ocean on the edge of space, and I think this is all a dream.   
Someday, she says, this will all make sense.   
I look into her eyes and I see galaxies spinning about, tiny little cogs in a cosmic machine.   
The sheer scope of it all is unimaginable, but just for now, I imagine.   
As I see the stars wheel overhead and see all of history play out before me,   
I accept the surreal sights and sounds because I expect to wake up.   
And I do. 

I take her hand, and I fly across worlds, across lifetimes,  
And somewhere in the cosmos, I take my first breath.   
  
~*~

 


End file.
